After a period of controversy and infighting, it looks like the Hugo Awards are back on an even keel. The Oscars of sci-fi/fantasy fandom announced its 2017 nominees on Tuesday, celebrating a wide range of works from Doctor Who to a hip-hop concept album.
Books and short stories
Prose fiction is the biggest subcategory at the Hugos, a hotly contested honor. This year’s shortlist for Best Novel includes 2016 winner N.K. Jemisin, Three Body Problem author Cixin Liu, and former io9 editor Charlie Jane Anders.
- All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders (Tor Books / Titan Books)
- A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers (Hodder & Stoughton / Harper Voyager US)
- Death’s End by Cixin Liu (Tor Books / Head of Zeus)
- Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee (Solaris Books)
- The Obelisk Gate by N. K. Jemisin (Orbit Books)
- Too Like the Lightning by Ada Palmer (Tor Books)
The shorter fiction categories represent a diverse pool of authors, featuring fresh faces alongside old favorites like Lois McMaster Bujold.
During the past three years of nominations, the Hugos were disrupted by a reactionary group who objected to the rise of progressive subject matter and diverse creators. Their bloc-voting tactics were less successful this year, only leading to a handful of nominations like the erotic novelette “Alien Stripper Boned From Behind By The T-Rex.”
Marvel and Image Comics dominated the comics category, with nominations for Black Panther, Monstress, Ms. Marvel, Paper Girls, Saga, and The Vision.
Film and TV
2016 was a great year for SF/F on film, leading to nominations for Arrival, Deadpool, Ghostbusters, Hidden Figures, Rogue One, and season 1 of Stranger Things.
The Hugos’ screen awards are separated into longform and shortform “Dramatic Presentations,” meaning that other media are occasionally nominated in addition to film and TV. Stranger Things was nominated in the longform category, which may happen more often with the rise of Netflix dramas.
This year’s most unexpected Dramatic Presentation nominee was “Splendor & Misery” by the hip-hop group clipping., nominated in the shortform category alongside episodes of Doctor Who, Game of Thrones, and The Expanse. Featuring vocals from Hamilton‘s Daveed Diggs, “Splendor & Misery” is a futuristic sci-fi concept album.
SF/F fandom
Along with awards for artistic works and creators behind the scenes, the Hugos are a celebration of SF/F fandom. This covers fan artists and bloggers, podcasts, and fanzines, with nominees including cult internet porn author Chuck Tingle, popular geek culture blogs like Lady Business and Uncanny Magazine, and Sarah Gailey’s series of Tor.com articles about the women of Harry Potter.
You can find the full list of Hugo nominees here.
